Nokia rails against "proprietary" Ogg

Nokia has joined Apple in calling for a change in the video code requirements for HTML 5. Specifically they want the W3C Working Group to drop the requirement that browsers and devices support the Ogg video and audio codecs.

In a Position Paper, Nokia states that the Vorbis audio and Theora video codecs are not the open, free formats that their advocates claim them to be.

On the contrary, the paper's author, Stephan Wenger, describes Ogg as a proprietary technology: "the recommendation of the Ogg technologies [is] based almost exclusively on the current perception of them being free," he says.

Ogg and its codecs are open-source projects, and widely believed to be free of the patent restrictions that mean anyone using the more popular codecs - such as MP3, WMA or AAC for audio - must pay licence fees.

These claims have been disputed, however: an article from <Wired suggests that the Ogg technologies may not be as free from patent litigation as its proponents assume. Certainly it has yet to be tested in court, one reason why manufacturers of portable music players have largely preferred to cough up for license-approved, if not open, standards.

But the draft HTML 5 specification says that browsers and devices "should support Ogg Theora video and Ogg Vorbis audio, as well as the Ogg container format".

Apple, like Nokia an active member of the Working Group, has objected from the start. It does not want HTML 5 to specify any compulsory requirement for a technology that it not widely supported.

Nokia agrees. "A W3C-lead standardisation of a 'free' codec, or the active endorsement of proprietary technology such as Ogg, by W3C, is, in our opinion, not helpful for the co-existence of the two ecosystems (web and video), and therefore not our choice," Wenger says.

Instead W3C should avoid recommending any codec and leave it to market forces to decide. Or it could draw up a list of approved codecs. Nokia shares Apple's preference.

"Considering our requirements, we believe the widespread use of technically competitive, but not necessarily 'free', open standards, such as H.264 for video and AAC for audio, would serve the community best," Wenger says.